Napoli's Champions League Ambition Remain High After Victory Over Palermo

byDavidonMay 2, 2012

Napoli marching on to fulfill their target in reaching the third spot place by the end of season after picking up an important 2-0 victory over Palermo this midweek, thanks to a controversial penalty by Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik’s goal.

Meanwhile, As Roma looked like saying goodbye for their European ambition after only grabbing a point again, this time against Chievo in a rather ridiculous playing field which pretty much troubled Luis Enrique’s side in doing anything much beside holding into a 0-0 draw.

Napoli temporarily broke free from their other competitors who are chasing that last Champions League place and looking really comfortable in securing that spot by the end of season with a rather mild schedule. Their victory over Palermo obviously another important result for Walter Mazzarri’s boys in keeping their current advantage over the likes of Lazio, Inter Milan along with Udinese, who are all having the same points with the Partenopi before Tuesday.

Napoli’s victory was not actually achieved in the most easy way though as Palermo put on a feisty battle at the beginning, before a rather dubious penalty decision seemed to rattle their mentality a little bit. The referee pointed to the spot after judging Milanovic of fouling Goran Pandev inside the penalty area, despite it was not actually a voluntary act, causing some serious disappointment from the Rossanero players, who couldn’t do nothing much as they witnessed Cavani burying the penalty expertly.

Things got easier for the home team after that first goal as they continue to create chances before Hamsik eventually doubled their lead midway in that first half with a fine low shot after receiving an assist from Pandev. Not much actions happened in the second period as both teams failed to get in the score sheet, resulting in another pretty comfortable victory for Napoli, which simply gave more pressure for their competitors.

Meanwhile, in Verona, Roma who are aiming to get themselves back on winning ways doesn’t seem to have many luck coming their ways recently as a heavy rain early in the game pretty much troubled their basic passing football. The home team, Chievo Verona, are looking much more comfortable with the waterlogged pitch and simply the more dangerous team as the created several goal scoring chances which should probably gave them all three points.

Luis Enrique’s boys were pretty lucky they didn’t end up on the losing side by the end of game, but the 0-0 result pretty much saw their Champions League ambition flying away bit by bit as their competitors seemed to be getting away. The capital club might not even finish in any European competition should their results didn’t improve, a rather disappointing result indeed it that happens as there are hope for improvement this season.